3 Apr 2008(Thu)

April 1, 2008: After a shaky start to the new campaign, this team really needed to get their act together at the weekend.

And they did just that, not only winning for the first time this season but scoring three goals in the process. Their loyal supporters must now feel their season is finally under way and they can start moving up the table.

Yes, that was an impressive performance by...Tokushima Vortis (sorry, did you think I was talking about Urawa Reds?)

With no J1 games on Saturday, Shonan Bellmare-Tokushima Vortis had the makings of a good day out. Indeed it was, especially for the travelling fans in a crowd of 4,474 at Hiratsuka Stadium. There weren't many of them, but they stuck with their team when the going got tough and were able to celebrate a 3-2 victory.

Among their numerous banners was one that read "Share good times and bad times", and this was clearly one of the good, thanks in no small measure to the dynamic play of a certain Seydou Doumbia.

Having failed to make the grade with Kashiwa Reysol, the 20-year-old forward from the Ivory Coast is now the toast of Tokushima after his match-winning display against Bellmare, scoring once and setting up the other two for Jun Tamano and Yutaro Abe.

The best of the bunch was Abe's goal after 76 minutes, which proved to be the winner. As Bellmare pushed forward, Doumbia led a Vortis counter up the right flank. Using all his pace and power, Doumbia left the former S-Pulse stalwart Toshihide Saito in his tracks before sending over an inviting cross. Abe, who had only just managed to keep up with Doumbia's raid, hurled himself at the ball and hit the target with a flying header.

There was still some defending to do, though, before Vortis could celebrate three points, and I would like to take this opportunity to praise the Tokushima captain, Shogo Nishikawa, for a piece of fair play and sportsmanship.

The 90 minutes were almost up and Tokushima were hanging on to their 3-2 lead when a visiting defender went down after an aerial duel with Bellmare captain Jean Witte. At first it looked like the defender would stay down, pretend he was hurt, ask for the trainer to come on and waste some time, but Nishikawa signalled to his teammate to get up and get on with it.

I know it is not much, but nevertheless it was a refreshing sight in the current climate. My fair play award, therefore, goes to Shogo Nishikawa.

ends